1. Field of the invention
This invention relates to an electronic musical instrument which has a legato effect in playing a pedal keyboard and, more particularly, to an electronic musical instrument capable of prohibiting to read out the amplitude envelope of the decay portion of single note played thereon stored in an envelope memory for defining a timing loudness change of a musical tone as desired merely as to the musical note of the pedal keyboard.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The pedal keyboard is actuated by a foot of a player in an electronic musical instrument such as an electronic organ, electric pianos, etc. in case of bass accompaniment for the musical played thereby. The pedal keyboard is generally operated by one foot of the player, and a knee lever or pedal for an expression effect is used by another knee or foot. Therefore, if the player of the electronic organ operates to shift from one to another key in a pedal keyboard performance, he must always depress the next key after he released the former key with the result that the attenuated sound of the former key is present before the rise portion of the musical tone when the key is depressed. Consequently, it was heretofore very difficult to provide a legato effect in the performance of the electronic organ with the pedal keyboard.
The term "legato effect" is used throughout the specification and claims in a generic sense to means that the sound of the former key is successively and smoothly shifted to that of the latter key while maintaining a predetermined constant sound volume, as was known heretofore.